It has always been a challenge to develop a floor plan on how to maximize the circular shape of the Rotunda at Mall of America for the presentation of our A Passage to China festival. This year our organizing Passage Committee took inspiration from the semi-circular shapes of coconut slices (or watermelon slices) usually served at Chinese New Year and arranged our tables in groups of semi-circles around the Rotunda, giving us a nice central plaza, with its overhanging bamboo ceiling, for everyone to congregate and greet and chat. Everyone simply loved this arrangement and many commented on feeling the centralized forces, the ‘chi’, coming together in the center. This was really what Passage was about, a coming together of all like-minded organizations to promote mutual understanding of all things Chinese among all peoples.

On the morning of April 13, lines of eager attendees were already lining up outside our Passage gates waiting for the fun to begin. And what fun they had! The drums and dancers from the David Fong Family Lion Dance Team heralded the opening. The new table arrangement allowed for so much better sightlines and traffic flow that nearly all roadblocks around popular activities from previous festivals were eliminated. Now attendees could survey the situation, choose the best available activity table and amble over to enjoy themselves. New activities, such as the terra cotta warrior head-on-a-stick, or the paper cut greeting cards, found their eager audiences swiftly. This was also true for the increasingly popular porcelain medallion necklaces. Elders strolling by nodded approvingly as they smiled indulgently at the enthusiasm of the young. Occasionally these elders could be coaxed to sit down for a game of go. Then all serious concentration ensued, a game lasting two hours or more were not unheard of. Such juxtaposing scenes were what Passage had come to symbolize: boisterous fun for the young and intellectual exercises for the old, and something in between for the sandwiched generation.

The highlight on Sunday, April 14, was the judging of the terra cotta warrior coloring contest. A committee, headed by Liu Yang, Asian Arts curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, examined the work of a coterie of students and handed out a series of cash prizes in several age categories. This new activity attracted a group of attendees who had not come to Passage before. They were pleasantly surprised at the scope of our festival and promised to return.

Over in Sears Court there was an explosion of audience attendance, so much so that Mall of America had to call out its security guards! Mall rules dictate that there be clear passages in all directions should an emergency arise. So Mall guards were much in evidence as they tried to clear paths among our engrossed audiences. All in good fun, of course. This was a good problem to have: too much interest and demand!

CHFF cannot say thank you enough to all our participants for making 2013 Passage so memorable. To present a festival of this size requires the good will (and good humor) of both participating organizations and attendees. True to our logo, everyone coming through our Gates of Mutual Understanding and Courtesy will have partaken of our hospitality and our push for mutual understanding among all Minnesotans.

Last, but not least, our hats off to our volunteers, more than 100 strong this year! Without them, Passage could not have even gotten off the ground. Much less to the acclaimed finish that we achieved with an estimated 15,000 attendance. Thank you one and all!

Our Committee is already hard at work on next year’s presentation, together with its secret addition. Stay tuned and check our Upcoming Events page for updates.